Often Irreverent, Mostly Rational Blog for Fans of the Toronto Blue Jays. One Day, We'll Be Perfect.

Friday, June 17, 2011

Premature Tweet Bag - More Fun for Your Friday

Eventually, our shoe fetish post is gonna see the light of day. But in the interim? TweetBaggery! Let's immerse ourselves, and feel each of those economically expended characters wash over us, like a warm soapy bubble bath. (Sorry. Too much time on Tumblr lately.)

Let's go!

First up, @rdillon99 touches on the issues of the day: alleged pre-draft deal with Beede: AA flat-out denies it. If true, big deal or not?

Probably not a big deal, as even Keith Law (who kinda torqued this story up, though without much intent, or so we thing) mentioned that these sorts of deals are pretty common. We're guessing that Anthopoulos is chafing at the notion that he's transgressed the generally accepted practices, when all he really did was make sure that he had enough intel on the kid. AA is getting a reputation as a dodgy talker, though we think that has more to do with the Toronto/Canadian impulse to want to scrutinize every action and every word from our sports GMs. Which is a whole other post...

And another thing! @HandsomeStavros (and also, @prmaltais) ask: Who is most likely to be cut from the 40-man roster when Lawrie is ready to be called up? Or does a trade takes care of it?

First off: How did the 40-man creep back up to 40 men after the release of Josh Roenicke? Who the hell got added? Sorry, this probably doesn't instill confidence in our ability to answer. But let's pretend: Our sense of Anthopoulos (and aren't we just acting like his shrink today) is that he doesn't want to give up something for nothing. So to send somebody packing just to take flyer on the preparedness of a 21 year-old seems like a stretch. The problem is that none of the bargain store veterans have really distinguished themselves to the point where they'll be an asset. (Maybe Corey Patterson, but marginal left fielders can probably be found in many other places.) We dunno. We're stumped.

Speaking of C-Patts, his biggest fan @DrewGROF asks: chances we see Patterson in center if he's still around when Snider returns.

Yeesh. Entirely likely, though incredibly unfortunate. We had the chance to sit in left field for two games this weekend, and to watch Patterson's footwork as he settles under the ball is to watch a man who is never entirely certain that he'll make the catch until it hits his glove. Say what you will about Vernon Wells' loss of speed (and his denial of the same) which led to some declining UZRs and such, but watching Patterson and Rajai Davis play second tier outfield defense this year has made us appreciate what Vernon did, even in his decline.

Also: Snider played a few innings in centre before his demotion. Given the choice between Patterson and Snider, we might take Snider. (And we'd be pilloried for it, but nevertheless.)

Coming up on the program: roto baseball sandbagger @whatadewitt asks: which jays pitcher will prove to be the best hitter during interleague play? (and isn't the notion of interleague played out?)

What: Are you in a roto league that counts pitchers' offensive stats? What do we look like to you? Matthew Berry? The Talented Mr. RoTao? Nevertheless, a similar question was posed by a few other tweeters (@infieldflyrule as well, though he asked for the worst), so it's a matter of concern. So here's the career numbers of the Jays' starters:

Reyes - .360 OPS (8 for 59, including two doubles and two RBI.)Villanueva - .196 OPS (5 for 60, plus two walks and two batted in.)Morrow - .000 OPS (0 for 6)RickRo - .000 OPS (0 for 10)Stewart - Nothing registered in the minors, at least according to Baseball Reference. Which kinda freaks us out if we consider the possibility of sending a top pitching prospect to the dish for the amusement of the fans in Ohio.

Which speaks to the second half of the question, to which we say: There's entirely too much interleague, though two series a year would strike us as a fine balance. And we might even advocate for playing the visiting team's rules (DH in NL parks, pitchers hit in AL parks) if only to add to the interest. But ultimately, the weeks on end of Interleague seriously mess with the competitive balance, and shit is tight enough on our team as it stands.

Next: A rules question! @bigmf99 asks: Line drive, one hop, off the foul pole back onto the field. G. R. double or in play?

Funny that you should ask, because this very play happened to us whilst playing MLB 11 in Road to the Show mode last night. (Yeah, we live an exciting life.) But if a ball bounces over the fence and hits the foul pole, it is considered to have gone out of play and is a ground rule double. (Because The Show don't lie. Right?) Fine...if you really must know, MLB Rule 6.09 (e) states: "The batter becomes a runner when -- A fair ball, after touching the ground, bounds into the stands, or passes through, over or under a fence, or through or under a scoreboard, or through or under shrubbery, or vines on the fence, in which case the batter and the runners shall be entitled to advance two bases."

Let's bang some out quickly!

@w3leong asks - What does Brad Mills have to do to get a shot? He's killing it in the PCL

Indeed he is, leading the league in ERA (3.04), innings pitched (91.2) and strikeouts (84). Those are man-sized numbers, but we wonder about his motion, and whether if it has been cleaned up since last season, when it looked overly articulated and too jerky by a half. We haven't actually seen him play, so it's hard for us to say, though we suspect the Jays may have given Stewart the nod to help add to his marketability. Just a hunch.

We'd say that Stewart would be near the top, as a young pitcher who has yet to prove that he can't pitch in the Majors. (As for Mr. Drabek? His sticker price won't be met anytime soon.) We'd also imagine that teams are starting to notice Jake Marisnick's evolution from an athlete into an all-around producer in the Midwest League. For a big league name to come to Toronto, we're assuming that Marisnick's name would have to be in the mix. And also: Metro grocery stores have an impressive house brand of deli meats, called the Artisan Collection. (Roll your eyes if you must food snobs. Credit to the corporate grocer for a deli quality product.) The greatest of these fine cured meats is a Spicy Red Pepper Salami. Oh my god. So good. We could eat a pound of this stuff.

@DJ_Spencer asks: Even with the glut of starting pitching the Jays have in the org, should they sign Scott Kazmir? Buy low! (Hopefully) Sell high!

Oh my word, man. Have you lost your senses? Kazmir's ceiling now is probably a mid-tier LOOGY. Nothing more. Run, don't walk away from him. We might choose Victor Zambrano over him in a fantasy draft, and he hasn't pitched since 2007.

Less talk more rock!

@500LevelFan:How many more starts for Zach Stewart? Is he here only until Drabek comes back or for good? He'll get a few more. Though we suspect he'll be supplanted by either Mills or Cecil before Drabek. Will be interesting to see how he plays against teams that aren't hacking whiff machines.

@Nick0rz: With both Thames and Snider in AAA for the time being, who would you like to see step their facial hair game up? Villaneuva has been killing it lately. Wouldn't mind seeing JPA take his facial hair a little more seriously. Groom that face, young man.

@davejhenderson: do you have a favorite jays season? WS excepted? Great idea. Will totally write a post on this next week. Remind us.

@adrianbennet: Ottawa's sports bars re: the jays. How far are they below a replacement level sports bar? It's a pretty sad state of affairs, though we are in the season where it becomes 10% more likely that you'll catch a Jays game on TV. At least until the CFL regular season starts. Now that Chez Lucien was overtaken by hockey fans, there isn't really a great baseball bar in town. Sad.

And on that note, we're off with only a lantern, going from pub door to pub door to find a decent place to watch a game in the Capital City. We'll report back for those who care about such things.

Have a great weekend, and give some love to the Ack this weekend. He's a fire starter. Just like his namesake!